unsung romance: a counterpoint
by SkippingThrough
Summary: "Hello," His voice resounds clearly throughout the classroom. If rich, chocolate cake from a Michelin star restaurant had a sound, Jessica bets this would be it.
1. Chapter 1

He appears when she's at her most desensitized to the world (mostly Forks since she's never even traveled out of state - _but don't tell Lauren_) at large.

The first thing she notices is his pale - okay, that's not true.

The first thing she notices is the sudden gust of cold wind as the classroom door opens.

_Fuck. This is why I never sit in the front if I can help it._

Jessica looks up and sucks in her cheeks. Her younger brother always says the expression makes her look like a fish face to face with a boiling saucepan but what do middle-schoolers know?

She looks to her left at Lauren, whose long, blonde hair is obscuring her closed eyes and slack expression (of course she's asleep, they're reading about _weather patterns)_ and then surveys the rest of the class from the corner of her eye.

The kids who looked up at the sound of the door opening have curious, starstruck looks on their faces. Their eyes are round and a few have slack jaws.

She's pretty sure she just saw Mandy Moor nearly drop her gum out of her mouth.

She braces herself and looks back up to the front of the class.

The boy (man, model, statue, early Christmas present) looks like he could blend right into the snow coating the ground outside.

Flakes of it seeped into Jessica's clothes as soon as she stepped out the front door that morning. The weather picked up again between second and third period.

Now, Jessica looks and feels like a wet cat.

_Typical. And on the same day that Hunky Dory over here arrives, too._

He standing stone-still at the front of the class and looks rock-solid.

Not in the sense that he's muscular, but like he could take on a quarterback (not Tyler, for all his crowing and posing he isn't even a _good _at Football) and come out on top. Or scope out canyons with his bare hands.

Whichever is going to sound more poetic in her diary later (gotta keep it PG for her parents, otherwise they'll finally grow a conscience and stop reading; where would she be without her biggest fans?)

His hair is bonafide copper, a color her mom would spend half an hour praying for before her salon appointments to achieve (she always came out with fire hydrant red anyway; too bad there's only two hairdressers in Forks and the other one is Great Aunt Gertrude - the less said about her the better).

"Hello," His voice resounds clearly throughout the classroom. If rich, chocolate cake from a Michelin star restaurant had a sound, Jessica bets this would be it.

Jessica cautiously wipes the corners of her mouth, checking for drool.

"My name is Edward Cullen. My family and I moved to Forks a few days ago."

He scans blazingly bright eyes around the classroom and seems to resurface, unimpressed with the room at large.

That's okay. Jessica likes a challenge


	2. Chapter 2

It's back, by popular request (turns out I'm susceptible to bribery by reviews lmaooo)

* * *

As it turns out, Edward from Earth Science is only one of several equally gorgeous, statuesque works of art that now glide through the cramped little hallways of Forks High like birds of paradise.

The Cullen family is weird, especially for the small town of Forks.

There's the twins, who Jessica has only ever seen from afar. Jasper and Rosalie are juniors who both picked up the unlucky gene for Resting Bitch Face (Jessica sympathizes). They also both have a stick up their asses the size of Lauren's ego.

Jasper's under-eye bags either scream eccentric or drug addict, depending on the time of day and angle at which she's staring. He always looks hungry for something, but never seems to eat.

"It's heroin." Mike says one day without any kind of preamble, sliding into his cafeteria seat. He thinks he's charming enough to smoothly walk into the middle of a conversation and offer his thoughts on something, but it's more of an ineffective stumble.

They're friends though, so Jessica gives him a pity-nod of understanding and continues poking at her cafeteria-grade meat and mashed potatoes combination from hell.

No wonder everyone says the Cullens don't eat anything at lunch. She wouldn't want to risk food poisoning either, but she has to save her energy for Volleyball tryouts.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Eric has no such compunctions. Jessica's pretty sure he lost most concepts of manners in chess club. Meanwhile,her inner gossip-hound sniffs at the air hungrily.

"Jasper Hale. I'm pretty sure he's a heroin addict. I figured it out." Mike sounds really proud of himself. Lauren enters the conversation, her own tray of unappetizing cafeteria food in hand, and pats him on the head like a puppy. She slips into the seat next to Jessica's and they share a look of glee.

_This is going to be interesting._

Meanwhile, Rosalie is another sort of beast. To say she's an ice queen is like saying Antarctica is a bit nippy. Jessica once saw her give a senior that approached her a look that would make hell freeze over.

She's pretty sure he cried that day. Twice.

Still, looking at her directly is blinding. She's sunshine in human form, with none of the warmth and all of the glare.

The other brother, Emmett, is built like a football star in the making. Tyler was upset that Emmett might beat him out for the quarterback spot, but he hasn't shown any interest so far, no matter how many hints Coach Clapp drops.

For a Cullen, he's downright jovial. Emmett is said to initiate conversations on his own, which is more than she can say for the rest of them. Austin Marks swears that he heard him tell a joke in class once, but Jessica's pretty sure he's lying through his teeth.

The final Cullen member is Alice. While Jessica is used to being the shortest one in the room, Alice Cullen now has her beat.

She's just as quiet and perpetually bored-looking as the rest of them, but the energy around her is more manic. Something about Alice makes her feel more energetic and more alive than the rest of the Cullen kids.

Still, no matter how they all behave, they all share the same skin pallor - a sickly looking paleness that blends into Forks' winter weather.

_They're like_ _corpses_, Jessica thinks during an inner-monologue in Earth Science. She has been switching between staring idly at Edward Cullen's broad back, then Lauren's blonde hair, then back to Edward's back again in an attempt to not fall asleep.

She traces the shape of his spine with her eyes and the slight rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathes.

Suddenly, Edward jerks and spins around to face her. His chair screeches loudly with the movement and Jessica finds herself staring straight into his bright eyes.

_What the hell?_

"Edward, am I boring you?" Jessica barely notices the teacher's irritation.

Edward looks startled and his eyes are drilling into hers ceaselessly. It feels like the breath has been knocked out of her lungs.

He breaks eye contact first.

"No, I'm sorry. I got distracted."

_By...me? _Jessica feels hopeful and confused and incredulous.

Lauren's fingers skim hers and Jessica jumps. She looks down.

_What was that?_ The scrap of notebook paper reads. Jessica flips it over and writes_ I don't know._

Lauren gives her one of her patented _looks. _They'll be having words later.

When the bell rings to signify the end of the period, Edward is the first to leave the room. Jessica moves to follow him, but his ice cold glare (_Now I can see the family resemblance_, she thinks of Rosalie) stops her in her tracks.

_What did I do?_


	3. Chapter 3

"What the fuck was that?" Lauren hisses, like she's part snake (Jessica suspects she's not entirely off the mark there).

She bodily drags Jessica into the bathroom and flings open the door with a bang like it personally offended her, her mother, her grandmother, and her step-dad.

There's a girl with red glasses inside. She jumps a few feet at the sound of the bathroom door hitting the wall and skittishly walks out upon seeing Lauren's face.

Jessica jealously wishes she could switch places with her. Instead, she busies herself by studiously _not _wiping her cheek free of Lauren's spit and checking her nails. The purple glitter polish chipped after only two days.

_That's disappointing._

She looks up. Lauren's graduated from snake to dragon. If Jessica was the type to use inanimate objects for metaphors, she'd just say Lauren looks like a boiling tea-kettle.

Jessica decides to try her hand at honesty.

"I don't know."

Lauren quirks a thin, imperious eyebrow.

"I don't think I've _ever _seen any of the Cullen react to anything."

"I hear Emmett tells jokes."

Lauren curls a glossy strand of magazine-worthy hair around her finger and rolls her eyes at Jessica fondly. She looks immaculate, of course, even under the terrible bathroom lighting.

Boots tugged into a pair of track pants with a matching hoodie worn over the top. If Jessica were the jealous type (she is) she'd wish Lauren had slipped on the puddle next to Eric's locker and fallen on her face.

Since she's not, she makes do with fervently praying for Lauren to get hit in the face by a volleyball during PE.

"The last thing Forks needs is another comedian."

We both grimace as an image of Mike pops into our heads. Nobody has the heart to tell him that he's not funny, so they choose to think it instead.

"I really didn't do anything. I mean, I was looking at him."

"What, so he has eyes on the back of his head now? Get real," Lauren scoffs.

Jessica giggles and rolls her eyes.

"Maybe it's like a sixth sense? He can just tell when people are staring at him."

"Then he wouldn't ever be able to pay attention in class. The Cullens have been the talk of the town since they got here."

She's right. Within one week, even Angela had gotten in on the excitement of having new kids by badgering them into several interviews for the school paper.

They eventually ended up cancelling plans to run a week-long exposé on the Cullen family's personal lives.

"There's not much else to write about, so we're trying to capitalize on this." She'd explained with a put-upon look on her face when they refused to have their photo taken for the third time in a row.

Jessica thinks back to that moment and grimaces, her earlier excitement of having held Edward's attention dying off.

"It was probably just a fluke. Maybe there was actually a fly on his back or something."

"Was he trying to glare it into submission?" Lauren returns.

Jessica's primal survival instincts blare: Warning full snark ahead! She dodges gracefully.

"Come on, we're late to third period."

Lauren grumbles but lets Jessica take the out.

.

.

.

all your reviews light up my day. thank you all so so much for the inspo! now here's a jedward fic that's actually worthwhile that i recc HARD. it's called Indifference Was Never An Option. it's amazing and you should all read it.


	4. Chapter 4

Come lunch, Edward smoothly slides into the empty seat on Alice's left side. The putrid smell of cafeteria food mixes idly with the citrus scent of Alice's favorite hair gel. Even Forks's sleet and snow can't prevent Alice from exercising her fashion whims.

Edward twitches as the sweet smell that naturally emanates from the granite skin of all vampires strengthens when Alice leans in close to whisper something in his ear.

It's a pointless, human gesture from a life Alice can never remember, and one Edward sometimes wishes he could forget. Edward would usually prefer to dispense with the formalities and just view her visions through her thoughts, but there's a certain stubborn look in her eye and she won't stop reciting the Persian alphabet backwards.

"How was class?" She gives him a mega-watt smile and Edward sees at least three different Forks students melt in his peripheral vision at her radiance.

"Stop playing games, Alice. What did you see?"

She rolls her eyes, but doesn't lose the mega-watt smile despite Edward's growing annoyance.

"Don't you worry about it. You'll figure it out soon anyway." She grins and motions toward the cafeteria entrance with her head, in a tiny motion imperceptible to any humans.

Edward hears her before he sees her. Jessica Stanley, throwing her head back in a round of uproarious laughter, follows Angelica Weber into the room. The doors slam shut behind them, but she doesn't seem to notice.

Edward growls low in his throat. He still remembers the comment she made during class. Edward had already written Jessica off as one of many who have fallen for the good looks his vampirism had blessed him with, in exchange for his soul. The comment on his inhumanity came out of the blue.

It almost felt like betrayal, if such a word could be applied to his situation.

Jasper bites his tongue at the sudden shift in Edward's mood. The black storm cloud that usually hangs over his brother's head seems to double in size and strength, adding to it a gale of wind and an impending hurricane.

"What about her? Alice you need to tell me if it's something important."

Alice grins unrepentantly and waves at Emmett and Rosalie as they exit the lunch line with their trays in hand.

"Why don't you just go and talk to her yourself to find out?" Alice has moved on to reciting outdated botanical techniques from a book in Carlisle's library; it was printed in the 1930s.

Edward groans in disgust and takes a bite of the tip of his pizza.

It tastes like dirt.

He groans again, and vows never to do that when Emmett begins laughing at the look on his face.

.

.

.

me? an update schedule? hahaha.

tbh i will try update this more often as reading ur reviews and not writing makes me feel guilty as hell. turns out that's a great motivator. thanks for reading and favoriting and reviewing and following. ur all amazing.

also fun fact: i wrote the first chapter of this fic at 3am with no plans for anything more than a oneshot. plot is hard. anyone have any suggestions?


	5. Chapter 5

_Detention is hell_, Jessica thinks, idly staring at the clock.

There's nothing to occupy her except the constant_ tick tick tick_ and Mr. Molina's off-key humming. Normally, there would be at least two people in here. Mr. Molina even mentioned that they were expecting a second troublemaker to arrive.

Jessica looks at the clock again, wishing she had company. The results haven't changed.

At least there's only half an hour left, then she can finally join the rest of the junior varsity team for volleyball practice. Jessica shifts in her seat. Well, _Edward's _seat, actually.

She thinks she can smell the expensive cologne he wears. The breezy musk, like palm trees or lumber or something else sufficiently manly and expensive, penetrates her nostrils.

_It kind of burns, actually._

_"Achoo!"_

Jessica smothers a sneeze in the crook of her elbow.

_It's just a cold. For fucks sake, I'm not allergic to Edward's cologne_, she thinks.

The imaginary Lauren on her shoulder (her version of the devil and the angel, except it's all contained in one hallucination instead of two) smirks and gives her a nod full of faux sympathy.

"Oh shut up," Jessica grouses.

She slams shut her stuffy old textbook from the mid 80s to punctuate her point.

Suddenly, the little Lauren disappears in a pink puff of smoke. Mr. Molina stands in her place, with imaginary-Lauren's pink velour tracksuit being replaced by wiry glasses and a dark hair.

Jessica looks up at him, meets his unhappy gaze with a wince, and smiles.

"Sorry, I just meant, uh..." She's usually better than this at talking herself out of trouble, but something has been troubling her lately.

The Cullens have been the talk of the town, even though they've now settled down in Forks. Jessica heard from Lauren's mom that Carlisle is pretty popular at the hospital and she's seen Esme - or Esmi or whatever her name is - grocery shopping once or twice.

But she can't get Edward out of her head no matter how hard she tries. Something about him is...magnetic. Half the school thinks so too, so Jessica knows she's not alone. She heard Jasmine ask someone if Edward had a girlfriend during PE yesterday, and even Lauren, the most conceited person Jessica knows, is wiling to concede that Edward is prettier than her from a certain angle.

Still, it's something more than that. Lauren keeps teasing her, insisting that her little girl is finally growing up.

_"You should ask him out," Lauren cackles out with mirth in her eyes._

_Jessica groans._

_"You just want to see me fail."_

In three weeks, Edward's presence has infected her mind and nothing Jessica does can get rid of the mental image of his profile - the pale skin stretched taught against his high cheekbones, adam's apple, and sharper-than-glass jawline combine to form a _very_ tempting, very pretty picture.

Jessica thumps her head down on the cool desk to fight against her burning cheeks. Then the door creaks open.


	6. Chapter 6

Jessica turns at to the source of the noise, anything to cure her boredom, just in time to see Edward strut in like he's on a runway.

Suddenly wide awake, Jessica follows his form, head turning like a dog who's just spotted the mailman. She passes a hand over her mouth to wipe off any excess drool from her fantasy of him seconds prior.

_Holy shit. Did I summon him? Is this a s__peak of the devil and he shall appear moment?_

Edward glances at her for a moment and Jessica straightens in her seat with an inviting, come hither smile. She meets his eyes just in time to see the expression on his face melt away into sheer apathy at the sight of her.

_Damn it! Corporal, we're losing him!_

"You're late, Mr. Cullen," Mr. Molini says with disapproval. Edward smoothly steps up to Molini's desk and apologizes in quiet tones. Jessica tries not to make her strained ears too obvious as she listens in.

"That's alright, Edward. Just don't do it again," Molini seems like he's suddenly in a very forgiving mood. Jessica _wishes s_he could wield that much power with her teachers - maybe then she wouldn't be in detention in the first place.

_Then again, how bad can it be considering my current choice of company?_

Edward turns away from Molini with more grace than a ballerina (To be fair, ballerinas aren't actually a very good measure of grace - Jessica knows that first-hand from personal experience. No, she doesn't want to talk about it.) and smoothly pulls out a chair at the table across from hers.

_Shoot your shot, Jessica! _Her inner-Lauren cheers. Jessica waits until the Molini goes back to grading papers.

"So what are you in here for?" She whispers.

A curt reply: "I was late to class."

_Oh yeah. _Jessica remembers wondering where he was before Mike distracted her by throwing errant bits of pencil lead into her hair._ Idiot. _Jessica would've thrown the lead right back instead of being the bigger person and telling him to stop fucking around if she had known the act would lead her to get detention.

Jessica reinforces her smile and sympathizes.

"Yeah, Molini can be really strict about that." Jessica moves closer with a furtive look at the teacher, who's still grading.

She twirls a strand of hair around her finger idly, just like Cosmo magazine said she should.

Edward doesn't look entirely disgusted with her so she counts it as a win. She continues.

"I was late to class by three minutes once and the door was already

Edward is starting to look bored so Jessica hastens to finish her explanation and move on to a better topic.

"You wouldn't remember it. You weren't there that day because it was pretty sunny."

"What?" Jessica straightens and lets the strand of hair fall. Edward's eyes are fully focused on her now and the steely tone of his voice, coated with quiet surprise, is unusual - but still attractive.

"Uhm, yeah, you weren't there. You Cullens usually go hiking or something on sunny days, right?"

Edward knows Jessica unofficially initiated herself as the school gossip near the start of her freshman year. She's always prided herself on keeping an eye on the people around her and an ear out for any new hallway chatter about who what when where and why.

For her to know a detail like shouldn't have caught him as off-guard as it did. He shakes off the surprise like water. This can't have been the reason Alice had mentioned Jessica. There has to be something else...something he's missing, besides the girl's painfully obvious crush on him.

Edward knows if she knew what he really was, she'd go running for the hills. There are times when he is tempted to flash his fangs if it would get these stupid, naive, hopeful girls off his back, but he learned a long time ago that humanity never knows what it should be running from.

Edward breaks eye contact for a moment before looking at her again through his lashes. He sees Jessica's cheeks swell with blood and change color to a ruddy red under his gaze.

"Carlisle and Esme have always loved nature," He says, "They want us to follow in their footsteps."

Edward sees Jessica's mouth almost twitch into a frown before she smooths it back out, determined to be positive and giggly in his presence.

_That sounds like a canned response,_ she thinks. Edward hides a frown.

This is going worse than he planned. Jessica shouldn't be able to catch him off guard as often as she does, but it seems like every time he's settled down around her and fallen into the same conversational rhythm as most of the humans he surrounds himself with, she pulls out some kind of surprise.

"I wish my parents were like that," Jessica says. She's still looking up at him through her lashes, but it looks a little painful for her now.

She's determined to be sexy, but Edward wishes there was a polite way he could tell her to stop trying. He opts to ignore the looks she keeps sending him.

"Miss Stanley, Mr Cullen," Molini says. Edward sends out a silent half prayer to a god that no longer believes in him. "Please separate. This is not social hour."

Jessica does so with a mournful sigh. Edward stays in his seat and tries to find something of interest in her head. Her propensity for paying attention to her surroundings aside, he doesn't see anything in her that could be of any interest to Alice, or by extension, to himself.

There's still twenty five minutes left of detention, but Edward has all the time in the world. He sits and waits.

* * *

I love you guys :)


	7. Chapter 7

The floor is red.

The usual impassivity Jasper tries to maintain to fight back his own blood-lust loosens in his surprise. For just a moment, Jasper loses control of the gaping, hungry beast contained within his head.

He lurches from the doorway in a movement too quick for the human eye to follow. Emmett, who was walking back from standing near his locker and idling next to Rosalie, puts his hand on Jasper's shoulder. Jasper is slammed back down to the floor and into reality with the force.

He stands, leaving behind a thin crack on the cold tile with the force of his fall.

_Monster._

It's a wordless thought, guided by instinct and more animal or godless being or demon or whatever they, as vampires, are. It pierces Jessica all the same.

Alice can see it in her eyes. It's almost like a physical blow, that reminder of their inhumanity.

Suddenly, the cold clarity of the scene winks out of existence. Alice is left befuddled, head spinning at the change of scenery as her eyesight catches up with her surroundings.

Her hand is still moving, writing notes that match up with the content of the American History lecture. Jasper is on her right side, staring at the slideshow in consternation.

Some of the notes must be historically inaccurate. Jasper only ever bothers looking at the history notes for that long if they've personally offended him in some way.

He's talked in circles at length about the dilution of history and what it means to know the truth. If there's one thing Jasper can't stand, it's inaccuracy.

Beneath the table, he squeezes her hand. He knows intimately well the tumult and chaos she experiences during visions. Her emotions cloud him.

_Visions are never fun. I'm sorry. _He tells her, all without words. Alice closes her gaping mouth and tries to not to think about who Jasper was about to attack before her vision ended.

"I need to hurry things along," She whispers to Jasper in tones too low for any human to hear.

"I thought you said you were going to try not interfering?" He whispers back.

Alice frowns.

"It's okay," She reassures him. "It'll be better this way."

Jasper nods, unsure. He doesn't know the full extent of the vision. He doesn't need to, because Alice knows what to do to prevent it from coming true.

Jasper trusts her wholeheartedly, even though he may not have a heart. He always will, ever since she walked into that little diner with a yellow sundress and a future in mind for the two of them.

After all, it's them against the world. Who can he trust, if not his other half?


	8. Chapter 8

Jessica slams the front door to her house shut and prepares to soak in today's failure with brownies dusted in salty tears. She finally had the opportunity to talk to Edward one-on-one and it was disastrous.

Jessica's stared at Edward's gorgeous, perfect face from the corner of her eye enough to recognize his subtle facial ticks. He hadn't just looked apathetic or bored. He was...well. He was a little confused, and Jessica doesn't even know where to begin dissecting that, but more importantly, he was _unimpressed. _

Jessica feels like hanging her head in shame - or just hanging herself. She's never felt this low before.

_Is this how Rosalie makes people feel? _She wonders, having never had the guts to talk to her.

Jessica launches herself into the kitchen when she sees the bright, yellow sticky note on the fridge.

_Went to Portland with your brother to visit Aunt Mack. We'll be back by Sunday._

_XOXO, mom_

Her bad mood disperses with a fist pump.

"Hell yes!"

The initial plan was to call Lauren and dissect every bit of the interaction she just had with Edward today during detention. Now, Jessica hurtles toward the (newly cordless and no longer stuck in the 90s!) landline her mom had installed six months prior.

Tyler had welcomed her into the 21st century the first time she saw it. Even Angela made a comment about how she was sure that corded telephone would outlive them all.

She nearly jams the buttons with the force of her excitement.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

Lauren finally picks up the phone.

"What do you want? I'm painting my nails."

"My mom's in Portland with Nathan until Sunday. Come over and help me throw a party."

"A pity party?" Lauren snorts (if Jessica ever brings it up, she'll swear it was a giggle).

Jessica grins.

"Don't be a bitch, I mean a _real _party. You did it for Tyler."

She can see Lauren weighing the pros and cons in her head.

"Fine, let's do it. But you have to let me be in charge of the playlist. And I'm coming over in an hour."

Jessica immediately agrees and ends the call. Maybe today isn't a lost cause. Everyone has their failures, after all. Even if Jessica babbles in front of Edward and doesn't know quite what to say to make herself memorable to this living statue of a man, even if all she can do is stare when he appears out of thin air, like a mirage or a perfume ad come to life, her friends are always here to make everything better.

If worst comes to worst, she can chase down the bitter memory of his expression with vodka shots and fruity cocktails. Angela doesn't look it, but she makes a mean bartender.

Jessica puts down the phone and grabs her notebook to begin planning.

Sometimes, you just have to forget about the way Edward Cullen and his freaky deaky siblings look standing in the cafeteria line with dull, brown plastic trays in their hands...and throw a crazy, stupid, small-town rager instead.


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm not going,"

"Yes you are." For once, Alice's whimsy is missing. She is unyielding, as certain and immovable as her stone skin. Alice's will bends to noone, least of all to Edward's token protests.

And she's right. He is going. For god's sake, this isn't even a real argument.

He, Alice, and Emmett have already piled into the Volvo. Even as he tries to remember when it is that he stopped fending off Alice's requests to attend, Alice is turning on the car's smooth engine (courtesy of Rosalie, who gripes every time she sees what their "unhinged' driving does to their cars) and pulling out of their driveway.

Rosalie and Jasper begged out, but not before the latter gave Alice a significant look that even Edward's mind-reading couldn't help him interpret.

"It's for the best," Alice had announced.

Had they gone, the party would only become more chaotic. Edward figures that an attendance rate of three Cullens is enough to temporarily get this party's hosts to the top of the shifting high school hierarchy.

At present, her chooses to ignore Alice's happy humming and focus on the road ahead.

_Damn Alice. And damn the world at large._

.

.

.

"Holy shit," Angela swears, which is strange because Angela never swears. Jessica can count on one hand the number of times she's heard her friend cuss. Two of those times were in the aftermath of a bad decision involving a tuba and a newspaper that ended with a broken bone.

Still, Angela stops dead. Mike gently adjusts the tumbler in her hands so the drink doesn't pour out onto the floor before shifting his attention to the doorway. Then he also stops dead.

Jessica figures she'll need some liquid courage for whatever it is that's about to go down so she downs a nearby jello shot in one go and masks her splutter.

Turns out Alice Cullen's soft, melodic voice definitely carries when she's speaking in a suddenly near-silent room.

"Hi, Jessica. What a lovely party you planned! The streamers are a really nice touch," She winks. "But call me if you want me to help you out next time. I'm pretty good at planning events. It's my 'thing'."

Jessica nods with a smile pasted onto her face, fully aware that Lauren will eviscerate her if she ever goes to Alice Cullen for her future party planning needs. Unless Alice's boyfriend/brother gets to her first.

Even if it turns out Alice is kinda cool, she still has suspicions that Jasper Cullen is on heroin.

A few silent secshe thinksonds pass. Then her brain catches up with Alice's patient smile and she realizes she's expected to respond.

"Sounds great. That depends on how dead I'll be if my mom figures out what I've done, but I'll kepp you posted."

Her work is donshe thinks with a sharp burst of irritatione. Jessica turns to down another jello shot as a 'Congratulations, you survived That' gesture before she realizes the room is still almost dead silent. Clealry, her work is not done and could whatever is ruining her party please stop doing that? Everything was going so well too.

This must be karma or the redistribution of the energies of the universe or whatever her mom rambles on about whenever she visits that little spiritual shop in Seattle.

Turning around dramatically once more, she realizes that a pack full of wild Cullens have emerged from their cave/mansion and are glancing around in curiosity around her house. Jessica wisely chooses to use her drunkeness to her advantage and channel her inner-Lauren.

"Do you guys need to be invited in? Come inside; you better have booze," She turns toward some of the other party-goers, who have conglomerated into groups, "Jesus Christ, it's like you guys have never seen pretty people before. Eric, turn up the music! Let's get wasted!"

That crashes the one-sided staring contest that was going down between everyone else vs the Cullens. Eric, self-appointed DJ that he is (Jessica had to nag Lauren into letting him play. She's heard his mixes before and they're pretty good), listens for once in his life. Suddenly, the floor is vibrating with a trashy club beat.

Jessica's a little afraid of the neighbors calling in a noise complaint, but mostly she's just drunk and admiring the way Emmett fills in the door-frame completely, almost blocking Edward, as he steps inside her house.

_Yum, _she thinks with a blurry sort of gratitude, pleased that the party is still going. Alice has chosen to acccost a surprised Angela about drink combinations while Emmett is talking to some senior out near the kitchen.

The beat echoes in Jessica's bones and she sees more people rush toward the sounds. Lauren chooses that moment to latch onto her shoulder and give her a tight squeeze.

_What are we waiting for? _She mouths, since Jessica can't hear her through the music. Her breath smells fruity and sharp. It's clear that Angela has been working her magic. Like moths attracted to the light, she leads Jessica out into the middle of the living room turned dance floor. Jessica spots Edward, entering the room.

He looks like an angel wreathed in backlighting, but his hands are shoved into his pockets and his shoulders are just slightly hunched. He's looking around the place like he'll catch the influenza if he touches anything.

_Whatever, _Jessica thinks with a sharp burst of irritation. She loses herself in the dancing, grinding, twisting bodies.

.

.

.

um, no excuses here. just apologies. lemme know ur thoughts


	10. Chapter 10

Jessica heaves a tired sigh and glares enviously, and drunkenly, at Lauren.

_How the hell is she still going? _

The heels in Jessica's hand, which she abandoned three Pitbull songs ago, clack together as she exits the unofficial dance floor. Well, to be precise, she _stumbles _out of the living-room-turned-dance-floor.

"Awesome party!" A random sophomore shouts to her from across the hall. He lifts his red solo cup in a not-as-classy-as-he-thinks-he-is toast to her general awesomeness.

Jessica grins at him charmingly anyway, because otherwise Lauren would have a field day about manners, and decides that she need more alcohol ASAP.

She wanders past her fellow drunks, nodding in solidarity to the few blurry faces she recognizes. Aaron Rockwell is sucking face with Brit from her English class in the corner of the hallway. Jessica snickers and makes a note to tell Lauren.

Brit has a boyfriend. Jessica has blackmail. _Score._

The world spins and Jessica sinks to her knees. Her hardwood flooring is looking a little more scuffed than she remembers. Jessica gives a mental shrug, which translates to a physical shrug in her drunken state.

Oh well. Something for her future-self to deal with.

A passing freshman (it _has _to be a freshman, Jessica is the shortest girl in her grade, bar none, and there aren't any juniors/seniors with a baby face like that. Look at those round cheeks. So cute) gives her a weird look.

_Wait...a freshman? The fuck?_

"Hey! You aren't suppose..supposed to be here!" Jessica says, strictly louder than necessary. Technically, it's a shout. One loud enough to penetrate past the music blasting out of her living room.

The freshman, and H_ow did she not notice Dorkus Pocus over there in his loud, yellow sweater?, _rounds the corner and dissapears. Jessica staggers drunkenly after him.

"Get back here! You're not-not welcome here!" She whines, the nasally sounds of her voice cuts deeper than bone. It's a trauma-inducing sound, like a cat having sex or a cow giving birth.

Jessica thinks it sounds like her mother. She slaps her own ear in irritation, trying to get the echo of her own voice to leave her head.

Her red heels clatter in her hand, but she doesn't need them to stomp though the house and follow the blurry yellow-sweater-kid out the back door into the cool, evening air of her backyard.

She stops once more, swaying as the winds assaults her senses. Not softly, like a pillow to the face. More like a battering ram to _every part of her body Jesus Christ how could I forget it's winter, _Jessica vaguely wonders in misery.

Goosebumps cover every inch of her body. The teeny black dress ("A classic! Even your short ass can pull it off," Lauren had said) provides no protection from the elements. She immediately writes off yellow-sweater-kid as a loss and executes an only-slightly-impaired 180 degree turn...before slipping on a pile of slushy snow.

_Ow. _She thinks. And also: _COOOOLD. _

The places where the snow has made contact with Jessica's body sting with needle-like precision as the cold penetrates her skin. She groans in disappointment at her pitiable tolerance.

_I thought I burned all the alcohol off dancing. _

Now, Jessica is regretting the meager attention she usually pays in all of her science classes. Then again, her choice of distraction has usually been _Edward. _No explanation necessary.

She smothers a drunken giggle imagining explaining _that_ to her mother.

_"Oh the reason I have a failing grade? Well, see, there's this really cute boy in my class, and I think we're psychically linked or something because he looks like he just sucked on a lemon every time I think about him."_

_Then, her mom would nod in agreement and say, very wisely:_

**_"_Jessica, are you alright?"**

Jessica jerks away from the voice, which doesn't at all match her mother's warm tenor. Her eyes open (_When did they close?) _and Edward's blurry visage greets her.

He's kneeling next to her prone body in the snow, with strands of coppery hair flopping lazily in the wind. He doesn't look cold at all and as soon as Jessica thinks that (ignoring the vicious surge of jealousy) her shivers and wraps his arms around himself.

Looking a bit concerned now, he repeats the question. Adds something.

"Can you speak?"

Jessica's mind shuts down. Momentarily. What comes out makes her wish she'd shut up for good and just played dead.

"I didn't think you even knew my name," Jessica stutters out. _Shit, real smooth, Jess. Good job._

Even kneeling in a pile of snow with wet jeans, Edward looks for all the world like a work of art that walked out of someone's trendy New York exhibition. The exhibit in question is probably titled 'Concerned Man Tries to Understand What Goes on Inside Teenager's Head'.

Jessica feels an urge to lift her hand and smooth away the crease in his brow. His expression fades and the worry smooths away.

"I make it a point to know some basic things about my peers. Such as their names."

Jessica mentally changes the name of the exhibit Edward wandered out of to 'Concerned Man Tries to Understand What Goes on Inside Teenager's Head. Succeeds, to His Consternation.' Edward frowns again. Jessica opens her mouth (unfortunately).

"Well, that's good. Even I don't always do that."

Edward offers her a wordless hand and Jessica's not stupid enough to refuse. She yelps when they make skin contact and covers it up with a sneeze. It's like holding onto a porcupine or a fistful of snow, with the same sensation of stinging needles.

The hand holding her up jerks away but Jessica's hanging on about as tightly as a rock-climber would to a cliff-side. The momentum hauls her toward Edward and slams bodily into his thick blue sweater.

"Oof," Her lungs involuntarily deflate. It feels like getting tackled by a linebacker. Her memories of flag football have nothing on this.

Edward looks concerned again. He carefully unlatches her from his body and Jessica's pretty sure the sound of octopus tentacles unsticking is only in her head.

"Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

"My pride, I guess. I'm not that breakable in body." Jessica gives him a lopsided smile. Considers patting him on the shoulder. Then remembers his rock-hard chest and decides her body really has taken enough abuse tonight. She lifts up a weak fist and shows him her thumbs-up sign instead.

"You'd be surprised. It doesn't take much for someone to get hurt."

Something's strange, but Jessica can't put her finger on it. It's almost like they're having two separate conversations. But, by nature of being drunk, she's not present for either. Edward is questioning, curious. His words aren't threatening, per say, but there's _something _behind them that makes her wary.

It feels like experience is weighing down his words. A new kind of sway over her that supersedes his good looks and makes her question him. And his reactions are so...over the top. The way he pulled his hand away was only the tip of it.

He lets out a mechanical sigh and Jessica realizes she's been silent for a while.

"You're usually very observant. It's not always a boon."

He seems like he's probing her for something, something important enough to stick around an environment that clearly makes him miserable and more shut off than usual. His discomfort about the party is obvious. Jessica's pretty sure she's only disappointing him.

"You should leave, if you don't want to be here. Nobody will force you to stay."

Edwards purses his lips. The porch light reflects off of his skin, pouring liquid gold over half of his face as the rest stays in shadow. He's so pretty it _hurts. _Jessica looks away momentarily.

Then she hears sirens.

* * *

tell me why i only ever write at 2 in the morning. TELL ME WHY. /

also not totes happy w/ their convo, feels off. lemme know ur thoughts xo


	11. Edward Interlude

Under his piercing gaze, Jessica turns tail and _sprints _away_. _Edward's seen, and personally hunted, as well as eaten, deer that have looked less spooked.

A single thought, his own, this time, fills him with dread. _She knows._

If it was at all possible for a vampire's temperature to change, to somehow feel colder, than Edward would be experiencing a chill running down his spine.

In their travels, sometimes, the Cullens have come across humans with a keener sense of danger. Those who are able to look past their pretty exteriors to understand that something strange is hiding beneath the gossamer-thin veneer of humanity.

Something dark and primal in Edward relishes these encounters, when humans, whose eyes usually wander toward them in lust and jealousy and attraction, recognize them for the monstrous beings they truly are. It's a little masochistic, Edward, knows, but it feels deserved.

In most cases, the Cullens try to leave people like this alone. There's no reason for them to stand out and draw undue suspicion. In the past, they had lay low and avoided people like this. The feeling of something strange had blown over or been ignored, to be replaced with the usual awe and acceptance.

Jessica had shown herself to be perceptive and clever, but to come up with such a far-fetched conclusion, to learn about the Cullens' nature and accept it as a possibility, took an open mind and more concrete information about their behavioral patterns than Jessica had access to. Edward reviewed their previous interactions in his head.

The weeks of idly staring at his back, all throughout the one class period they shared, the time they were stuck in detention together, and their few interaction in the halls. Outside of this party, Edward had never so much as glanced at Jessica outside of school grounds.

Yet, with every chat, she seemed to wise up to his tricks and bad habits, like reacting to people's thoughts rather than their words. He had decades of experience, of hiding the nature of both his powers and his very self, over Jessica's still-maturing perceptiveness. How could Jessica have read him like a book?

Edward's mind stalled a bit, and filled in the missing piece.

_I've been giving her the information, helping her out all along. _

He thought back shamefully to his own extreme reactions. Now, intellectually, Edward knew that he was the one at fault. Alice's pointed words about Jessica and her refusal to share her vision had aggravated Edward. He considered the action a fit of whimsy on Alice's part, and tolerated it only because there was nothing pressing about a possible branch of the future that happened to feature a classmate.

Jessica wasn't an unknown element; she wasn't dangerous; she just _was._

But, clearly, something about Alice's refusal had lodged into the back of his brain and niggled at him. Edward could have very well left Jessica to her own devices. Instead, he'd begun monitoring her, keeping vague track of Jessica's thoughts and actions towards him while tuning out similar thoughts by their classmates.

_Perhaps that is when she began to notice my strange behavior, and I began to react to hers, in turn,_ Edward considered.

In order to know a person, it helps to listen to their thoughts. Humans and non-humans alike are most honest in the privacy of their own minds. Edward had listened in to Jessica's, and become more sensitive to her thoughts and reactions in the process. This sensitivity brought out strong reactions in him, because he know felt like he knew her.

_What a vicious, self-defeating cycle._

With every uncanny observation, Edward had gotten more invested in understanding Jessica's complexities. By poking and prodding at her, Edward only gave Jessica more impetus to explore his reactions and other oddities surrounding his family. It's no surprise she had come to fear him, though the strength of her reaction, probably the result of some sort of drunken epiphany, was unexpected.

Now, his latest provocation can't be excused as a simple act of curiosity. Not when her knowledge could endanger all of the Cullens.

Edward considers his possible courses of action.

Sure, they'd just settled in Forks, but this wouldn't be the first time the Cullens had had to jump ship with little warning. If they skipped town by tomorrow, they could avoid any fallout and leave only rumors in their wake.

Edward considered the idea, but something in him lashes out at the thought of forcing his family to uproot their lives once more because of his mistake. Edward grabs Jessica's shoes from the dented pile of slushy snow into which she had fallen and begins tracking her into the leaps over the fence.

Edward will protect his family. No matter what.

.

.

.

remember: story has unreliable narrators :)


	12. Chapter 12

Looking back on that night, Jessica feels regret. Mostly because she can only remember bits and pieces of the party because she downed her weight in liquor. Partly because she'd done something unforgivably stupid once again.

She'd heard the sirens, paused for a moment - like a rabbit that knows it's caught in the cross-hairs of a hunter's rifle. A moment of indecision, fight or flight. Her head cleared for a millisecond.

_They'll hunt me down, _she'd thought. _They known I live here. _

Then the fog flooded in again.

Jessica had turned tail and ran. Feet slipping, short dress inching higher on her thighs, Jessica grabs the edge of the fence and scrabbles for purchase on the slippery wood. She heaves herself over into her neighbor's backyard.

Her house is situated near a woodsy area. Past the court are several miles of untouched forest. When she was younger, Jessica and her family made it a point to explore every inch. She would spend whole afternoons biking through every dirt path and mapping out every fallen tree.

Now, Jessica can't afford the time to look around. She's barely paying attention to the usual twist and turns. A branch swings down in front of her head and she ducks, slowing her pace.

The motion swings her off-balance. Stumbling on an errant tree root, she tries not to smash face first into another melting pile of snow for the second time that evening. Her feet aren't responding to her brain. Her brain isn't even responding to her brain.

Jessica slows her pace and finally acknowledges the burn in her lungs. She isn't superhuman, She needs _air. _Heart beating a staccato against her chest, she leans back against a tree and slides to the forest floor.

She rests her hands on her knees, ignoring the pinching pine needles beneath her bare feet. Jessica's head is fuzzy, full of moth balls and cotton. Her mouth is dry and even the awful vodka aftertaste has disappeared.

Of course, already awful night-vision is only worse in the dead of night in the middle of the woods.

It doesn't help that she left behind the trail she usually traverses somewhere behind her a few minutes ago. She could probably find her way back. Maybe in a few hours, when the she clears her head and the frostbite sets in.

Not for the first time tonight, Jessica groans at her own stupidity. She looks around, fishing for a distraction.

Jessica wiggles her bare toes, frowning. Something's missing. A tree branch cracks and Jessica nearly gives herself whip-lash when she snaps her head back up to watch the perimeter.

It's Edward, appearing in front of her, silent as a wraith, for the second time tonight. Forks' thick treetop canopy doesn't allow much light, but the meager moonlight that pushes through the branches makes his eyes glow an unearthly gold. He steps toward her and Jessica silently wonders how long she's been sitting here if the hallucinations have already started.

Or maybe someone slipped something into her drink? She dismisses the thought. Dark loafers (_So fancy!, _the small part of Jessica that isn't petrified keens) leave silent footprints.

Jessica jerks her head up. She has an epiphany.

_My shoes!_

In that moment, Edward lifts up his hand; a familiar pair of heels dangles from his fingertips. The cheap, clearance shoes were scavenged from a Payless sale during a 'Bonding Weekend' with her mom in Portland. Compared to his breathless beauty, it looks like he's holding a dirty rag. Jessica desperately wishes she pull a reverse-Cinderella and turn her cheap, ten dollar clearance heels into Louboutins.

Sadly, the universe does not acquiesce to her demands. Jessica looks on, unimpressed, at her metaphorical glass slipper.

Edward doesn't seem to cotton on to any of this, or else he just doesn't care enough to comment (it could go either way with him, Jessica's noticed).

He sits down in front of her, without saying a word. His posture is deliberately open: palms up, head and torso leaning forward, and with his hands at his sides. It's extremely unlike his usual behavior. Jessica assumes it makes sense that this half hallucinatory-Edward actually seems like he _wants_ to be around her.

Edward scowls. With deliberate gentleness, he take her ankle and holds out one shoe, slotting her foot neatly inside. He repeats the process a second time. Jessica lets him, too bone-tired to do anything but watch.

He sits back on his haunches. The illusion falls apart as soon as he opens his mouth. It's clear he's uncertain of how to approach whatever this is.

"Your hands are bloody," Edward says, apropos of nothing. Jessica looks down at her fingers. The palms of her hands really are torn up but she's so cold she can't feel a thing.

"You have good instincts. Your peers, they don't notice half of what you do."

Edward looks troubled, but Jessica's head is still fuzzy and she thinks this sounds like a compliment, so she motions for him to proceed.

"You need to stop second-guessing them. It'll be better and safer for you in the long run."

He trails off, gesturing his hands a little uselessly at nothing in particular. The motion makes him look more human, somehow. Maybe he can sense that she's warming up to him, because he barrels into the next part.

"I won't pretend that there haven't been any slip-ups. Accidents happen. But none of us are monsters. At least, not by choice."

Jessica looks at this boy, who is so _concerned _over _her _well-being; whose voice is so soft and uncertain and that it keeps getting lost in the wind; whose pale face is almost obscured by the snow that started falling around them in soft flakes during this one-sided conversation.

She sees fear in his eyes, and she rejects it with passion. Despite the exhaustion creeping into her bones, she shakes off the cobwebs and the zeal in her voice beats back the icy wind.

"You're right. I know more than I give myself credit for. That means you can't stop me unless I let you."

Jessica feels victorious, even though Edward his grimacing now.

"I'm trying to help you." He snaps.

"You're trying to help yourself. Stop acting like a coward. Stop hiding."

Jessica is shaking now, from rage and from the cold. Suddenly, she feels a bizarre urge to throw up overtake her. It's really not that out-of-the-blue, since she just drank her weight in liquor. Probably killed a lot of brain cells too. Eh.

Darkness eclipses her vision; Jessica faints. If Edward's heart still beat, he'd probably be having a heart attack.

* * *

my headcanon (probs doesn't match up w/ canon) is that Eds understands when people speak in their minds better than when they think in concepts/picture things bc otherwise he'd be assaulted w/ mental images all the time since ppl dont always speak in words in their heads. this is all j to explain why he misunderstood jess running away obvs. ya'll can call me out on being lazy if u want

also aaaaaa that conversation was awful to write. gimme feedback about it because im not happy with it at all


End file.
